DATA: Less than half of Royal Children's Hospital outpatients urgently requiring an assessment by a brain surgeon are being seen within the recommended 30 days. Picture: ThinkStock Source: news.com.au

LESS than half of Royal Children's Hospital outpatients urgently requiring an assessment by a brain surgeon are being seen within the recommended 30 days, figures show.

Queensland Health data for the first quarter of this year shows 90 per cent of category 1 elective neurosurgery outpatients at the Royal Children's waited up to 94 days for an initial specialist appointment - more than triple what doctors recommend.

The Australian Medical Association Queensland on Thursday listed specialist outpatient and elective surgery services for children in the areas of neurosurgery, neurology and ear, nose and throat surgery as requiring urgent action in the June 4 state Budget.

AMAQ president Alex Markwell said children were particularly vulnerable to delays in health care.

"We need to make sure that we have a safety net there for them,'' she said.

Queensland Health's website shows almost 5500 patients were waiting for an initial specialist outpatient appointment at the Royal Children's in the March quarter, and another 5400 at the Mater Children's.

Although the Mater does not publish figures on its outpatient waiting lists by specialty, the Royal Children's data shows 90 per cent of non-urgent category 3 patients requiring an assessment by an ear, nose and throat specialist are waiting up to 4.6 years.

The figures show most category 2 neurology patients, those considered semi-urgent, are waiting up to 323 days for an initial specialist appointment, more than three times the recommended 90 days.

Dr Markwell called for clinicians to be given more decision-making powers at all levels of the public health system.

"In the last 12 months, we've seen example after example of decisions that have been made without clinical input that have either had to be reversed or modified because it's become obvious that there will be significant impact,'' she said.

"It's not just doctors, it's nurses and allied health professionals, everyone who looks after patients, having them involved is paramount.''

A spokesman for Health Minister Lawrence Springborg said "new capacity" would be generated when the new Queensland Children's Hospital opened at the end of next year.

"We're still working through the backlog of specialist outpatients' appointments,'' he said.

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